Called Robin Good-fellow. Are you not he, Puck. Thou speak'st aright; And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe : But room, Faery; here comes Oberon. Fai. And here my mistress.----'Would that he were gone! 1 A quern was a hand-mill. 2 Wild apple. 3 Dr. Johnson thought he remembered to have heard this ludicrous exclamation upon a person's seat slipping from under him. He that slips from his chair falls as a tailor squats upon his board. Hanmer thought the passage corrupt, and proposed to read "rails or cries." 4 The old copy reads: "And waxen in their mirth," &c. It seems most probable that we should read, as Dr. Farmer proposed, yexen. To yer is to hiccup, and is so explained in all the old dictionaries. ! i SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his Train, and Obe. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord? When thou hast stolen away from fairy land, Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy; 1 See the Life of Theseus in North's Translation of Plutarch. Ægle, Ariadne, and Antiopa, were all, at different times, mistresses to Theseus. The name of Perigune is translated by North Perigouna. 2 Spring seems to be here used for beginning. The spring of day is used for the dawn of day in K. Henry IV. Part II. As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea We are their parents and original. Obe. Do you amend it, then; it lies in you. Why should Titania cross her Oberon? 1 i. e. paltry. The folio reads petty. 2 A rural game, played by making holes in the ground in the angles and sides of a square, and placing stones or other things upon them, according to certain rules. These figures are called nine men's morris, or merrils, because each party playing has nine men: they were generally cut upon turf, and were, consequently, choked up with mud in rainy seasons. 3 Theobald proposed to read "their winter cheer." 4 Autumn producing flowers unseasonably upon those of summer. 5 Page of honor. i Tita. Set your heart at rest, Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay? If you will patiently dance in our round, [Exeunt TITANIA and her Train. Obe. Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove, Till I torment thee for this injury.- And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music. Puck. I remember. Obe. That very time I saw, (but thou could'st not,) Flying between the cold moon and the earth, At a fair vestal,1 throned by the west; Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon; And the imperial vot'ress passed on, Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell. Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once; The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, Will make or man or woman madly dote Ere the leviathan can swim a league. Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes. Obe. 1 [Exit Puck. Having once this juice, I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. The next thing then she waking looks upon, (Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, 1 It is well known that a compliment to Queen Elizabeth was intended in this very beautiful passage. Warburton has attempted to show, that by the mermaid, in the preceding lines, Mary Queen of Scots was intended. It is argued with his usual fanciful ingenuity, but will not bear the test of examination, and has been satisfactorily controverted. It appears to have been no uncommon practice to introduce a compliment to Elizabeth in the body of a play. 2 Exempt from the power of love. 3 The tricolored violet, commonly called pansies, or hearts' ease, is here meant; one or two of its petals are of a purple color. It has other fanciful and expressive names. ! |